from: http://www.cs.umass.edu/~weems/CmpSci635A/Lecture14/L14.24.html
N = dimension
K = number of nodes on each edge
e.g., 4-ary 2-cube is a 4x4 2D mesh
Hypercube is a 2-ary N-cube
Has been shown that larger K and smaller N is more effective, scalable, easier to build